Guidestones - Sunflower Noir on CTV Extend

July 18, 2014

Jay Ferguson, the creator of Guidestones,
with some friends at the premiere.

On July 10, 2014 the team behind Guidestones set up a free screening of their second season at the Royal Theatre in Toronto. The event had a great turnout with friends and family posing in front of the Guidestones banner and grabbing free popcorn from the concession. The creator, Jay Ferguson, carried around an Emmy the web series won last year and passed it around to friends in the lobby. Guidestones is mystery, thriller web series that follows the adventures of two journalism students investigating a conspiracy that’s tied to an unsolved murder. Season 2 starts off with a new conspiracy for the protagonist, Sandy Rai, to follow. This time the theory revolves around a rare van Gogh painting, the Sunflower Noir, a black pedal version of one his ever-popular sunflower paintings.

The public screening, which consisted of the first 12 episodes, gave viewers a taste of this new mystery. Twelve episodes doesn’t sound like ‘a taste’ in terms of runtime, but it was just enough to set up the characters, the relationships between them, and the story. Many attendees, including the cast and crew, left the theatre eager to see the remaining six episodes. Jay Ferguson is keen to have audiences see the second season, after two years of hard work and filming around the world. This time around there’s an action element added to the series. “It moves at lightning speed, and it doesn’t let up,” says Ferguson, “the episodes are longer. The storylines are more complex. I think that if you did enjoy the first season, you’re going to find the second extremely thrilling.”

Supinder Wraich and Dan Fox both also attended the premiere with the same enthusiasm as Feguson. “Shit really hits the fan in Season 2, which is amazing, as an actor, as a storyteller,” said Wraich who plays the lead Sandy Rai. Her character has new arc in Season 2, and Wraich recounts that Sandy has a lot less options this time around. Dan Fox also recounts specific moments from Season 2, who plays opposite Wraich as Jameson Glendenning, “there’s a lot more characters as well, so there’s more stories happening simultaneously.” Fox notes this season of Guidestones travels to new locations to up the international feel with filming in Kiev, Chernobyl, Marseilles in France, Greece, and London.

With the mention of more travel, Sandy and Jameson are joined by a new French lead this season played by Arnaud Binard. Binard’s character, a painting forger named Brooklin Cott, follows Sandy on her new mission. “It’s an inquiry as the journey of Sandy goes on,” said Binard on Season 2, “as she continues her path throughout the countries abroad.” All 34 episodes from the first season are available to watch on CTV Extend. Guidestones was funded through various sources including the IPF for both seasons, but a distribution deal with CTV gave the second season a step up. Ferguson sees traditional broadcasters as allies in the web series industry, “having organizations like CTV as part of the equation now is extremely positive for the people in our business. We need them, because they have the audience and the resources to push this stuff out to a broader audience.” According to Ferguson, Guidestones is the first original web series distributed by CTV. With this distribution deal in mind, it will be interesting to see how Guidestones measures its success, and to whether it leads to a Season 3. “I think Season 3 might be happening,” stated Fox, “I spent some time in the Amazonian Jungle about a year ago, with my best friend Allen, doing some personal development spiritual stuff. We did that, and Jay [Ferguson] was like, ‘we might go down to South America.’” As of July 15, 2014 Guidestones - Sunflower Noir is streaming on CTV Extend.